Martin Paul Smith

Assistant Professor of the Practice of Education

As an Assistant Professor of Education at Duke University, Dr. Martin P. Smith teaches two courses titled, Race, Power and Identity: From Ali to Kaepernick and Education 101: Foundations of American Education. He also serves as Director of Duke’s Secondary Teacher Preparation Program and is the Faculty Director of the DukeEngage Boston Summer Literacy Program. Dr. Smith was first able to fuse his passion for education and sport at the University of California at Berkeley, earning both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education while playing on the basketball team. At Berkeley, he won the 2006 Jake Gimbell Award which honors the student most committed to academic and athletic excellence.

After matriculating at Berkeley, he worked in San Diego’s inner city, teaching geometry at Lincoln High School and adult education at San Diego Community College. He also established the Phil Smith Basketball Camp to honor his late father, NBA All-Star Phil Smith, using basketball as a means to promote academic achievement. In pursuit of his passions, Dr. Smith has traveled extensively, directing basketball clinics in China, the Philippines and Panama. Furthermore, he was the Lead Teacher’s Assistant at the University of Cape Town, South Africa facilitating a course examining the effects of apartheid and American segregation on contemporary Black, urban economic development. He completed his Ph.D. in Cultural Studies in Education at The University of Texas at Austin. He then conducted post-doctoral research in Spanish at UT’s Mesoamerica Center in Antigua, Guatemala, studying the amalgamation of race, culture, education and athletics. His work has been published in the Journal of Urban Education and The Journal of Race, Gender and Class.